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Why is creativity an important characteristic of great call center agents?
First of all, they talk to your customers all the time. They know their pains and joys. They know what your customers dislike or are interested about. At the same time, they have the power to shape your customer’s experience with your business.
With creativity, your call center agents can step outside of the box and can think of novels ways to consistently wow your customers and increase productivity.
However, there are little things that happen in the workplace that is not conducive for creative thinking.
Here are 4 office practices that can surely kill your call center agents’ creativity.
Creativity is not a big deal
Your call center agents value the things that you value. They are concerned of the same things that you are concerned of.
So if you don’t make creativity a big deal, they are less likely to be motivated to be creative at work too. They are not challenged or urged to find ways in taking the extra mile.
The result? They spend their hours at work going through the motions, coasting along and giving only the bare minimum.
Creativity is not acknowledged
Another creativity-killer is the absence of acknowledgement.
When they do or give creative ideas but are not acknowledged, they are discouraged to do the same thing ever again.
It gives the impression that no one notices their contribution and that it is not valued, giving them no incentives whatsoever to go on challenging themselves to do outside-the-box thinking.
Creativity is punished
A toxic workplace environment is another creativity-buster.
For instance, something is wrong when people who put forward suggestions that can be helpful for the business are called troublemakers instead or accused of calling attention to themselves.
When the rest of the team see what happens to their colleagues who tried to push boundaries, they are going to learn from the experience, keep their thoughts to themselves, and may even develop negative attitude of outrightly dismissing creative ideas.
Micro-management is the name of the game
Lastly, one of the biggest culprits that’s killing creativity at work is micro-management.
Micro-management happens when you give call center agents little to no room to freely come up with their own ideas and execute them, and when you expect them to do their tasks strictly according to instructions.
It makes your employees feel that they are robots, expected to do the things they’re told to do and not much else.
That’s the thing about creativity. You need to give it breathing space. It thrives on providing people freedom. There’s risk of them running with it, but you will benefit greatly when their ideas click.
How do you encourage creativity with your call center agents
As a business-owner, encourage your call center agents to be creative.
Make a big deal about it by including it as part of your core values, giving people incentives to solve work-related problems in new ways, and providing them enough legroom to freely think of creative ideas.
